Monday, February 2, 2015

Steve Baker, Mr. Escape has had three different proteges over the years. The most recent were Dean Carnegie and Andrew Basso. Any guesses who the third was? Today, Andrew is touring with the highly successful show The Illusionists. They had a great run on Broadway and are now touring across the United States. Dean Carnegie is hoping to revive his escape career shortly after a number of health related issues put him on the sidelines.

Andrew and Dean met up at the Kennedy Center in January. Andrew was performing in The Illusionists to rave reviews. He presents an Upside Down Straight Jacket Escape in the show and he also closes the first half of the show with a remarkable full view Water Torture Cell Escape.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Steve Baker is now a retired escape artist. Numerous health issues over the past few years have put an end to his career in escapes. He and his wife Julie enjoy a quiet retirement in a small mid-western town. Steve was interviewed by some local news organizations a year or so ago, and with any luck, I'll get those posted on the site sometime soon.

We'd like to do something special for Steve this year by celebrating his birthday. Because the Baker's are very private people, I'll include a P.O. Box for you to send cards and letters to. All the cards and letters will then be shipped unopened out to Steve in time for his birthday this year. His birthday is at the end of July, so we'd like to start collecting cards/letters now. The deadline for this is going to be July 18th, 2014. That will give me time to ship the stuff off for Steve to get on or slightly before his birthday.

Steve no longer has e-mail or access to the internet, so any notes you might post won't be seen and e-mails you may have sent him in the last 7 years have not been read because he has no computer to view them.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Here is one more photo of Steve Baker with the ladies who went out of their way to get Steve's belongings back from California and drove them in a Uhaul to Illinois. The leader and chief cheerleader and organizer of all the publicity and also one of the two who flew to California, helped load and drive it back is the blonde standing behind Steve, Theresa Greenwood.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Well folks, what began a few months ago as a desire to help some friends in need, has now been concluded. The U-Haul truck with the entire contents of Steve Baker's California Storage Unit has been unloaded at Julie Baker's home. AND, the wonderful volunteers who went out of their way to make this happen; Ella Jean Kuhar, Dorothy Clanton, Penny Harbert and Theresa Greenwood were able to hand deliver Steve's career clipping book to him (see photo above).

Leading the charge on this effort was Theresa Greenwood, who without a public relations background, was able to get the word out to the media and help orchestrate some wonderful news exposure for Steve and Julie. Along the way, the Central Illinois Film Commission read the story and awarded Steve a Lifetime Membership Award to their organization.

We want to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved for their hard work and selfless dedication to this cause, without these wonderful volunteers none of this would have happened.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Well folks, Steve Baker's storage unit is no more, it's all been loaded into a UHaul truck and is currently in Arizona, on it's way to it's final destination at Steve and Julie's house. Below is a photo of the UHaul when they started.

Next photo is the completed job. There was literally no extra space in the vehicle, they used every available space.

This final photo is of Russell (purple shirt) Theresa (orange shirt) and another Russell (white shirt) as they were getting the last few items loaded.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

As of right now, it looks like Steve's storage unit in California will be cleaned out in early October and brought back to his home in Illinois. The fundraising effort has been slow, though we are all grateful for everyone who contributed. We understand that times are tough for everyone.

They are a little behind the original schedule due to a lack of funds and the bad storms that came through several weeks ago that caused some damage to Steve and Julie's home. They've not quite raised enough money to cover all the expenses but the fundraising group is going through with the trip regardless!